


Somewhere In Between

by macaronize



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Interconnected oneshots, Mutual Pining, awkward teens are awkward, enjoy i guess, i live for post reveal pre dating tbh, i need a break from the angst, lots of fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-03 04:42:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11524770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/macaronize/pseuds/macaronize
Summary: It made perfect sense to Marinette that her Chat Noir turned out to be Adrien Agreste.  However that didn't make it any easier for her to decipher her feelings for him.  She thought things were supposed to get easier when they told each other their identities not more complicated...A series of interconnected one-shots in which Adrien can't sleep and Marinette can't leave her kitty out in the cold.





	1. Cold Kitty

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, so I started this oneshot back in December (thus the winter setting) and then didn't touch it for six months and now I finished it and then started another one in the same universe so this is born. I'll be writing this when I need a break from the Strings Attached angst. anyway I hope you like it :)

"Marinette," Sabine poked her head out the trap door leading to the balcony, "What are you doing out here is the freezing cold."

"I'm fine, Mama," Marinette said, "I need to get this sketch done, and this is the only place that's given me any inspiration."

Sabine hesitated, "Well, don't stay out to long.  We don't want you to catch a cold."

"Don't worry.  I'll be inside soon."

"Alright, sweetie," Sabine went back inside.

Marinette turned back to her sketch. She was nearly done. She just needed one more element to draw inspiration from and then she would at least have a basic plan for Gabriel Agreste's next contest.  Two weeks was all she had left, so if she wanted to finish she had to work nonstop, which would be much easier if her life hadn't become so much more complicated in the last week.  Who knew that her long time crush and superhero akuma-fighting partner were the same person? Not Marinette.  Now, she can't stop thinking about how many times Adrien had flirted with her (well, Ladybug) and how many times she turned him down. Then again, she wasn't even sure if all of Chat's flirting was even serious.  Maybe he was just playing around? 

Oh my God! She kissed Adrien Agreste!

_Ugh, this is too much_ , she slammed her head against her sketchbook.

"You alright, Princess?"

Speak of the Devil.

Marinette jumped, "God, Adrien, you scared me!"

"Sorry, My Lady, didn't mean to startle you.  You didn't answer my question though," he said. Marinette noticed the playful glint in her partner's eyes wasn't quite there.

"Yup. I'm fine," she answered way too quickly. "But, I should ask the same thing to you, Kitty," she bopped his nose, trying to act as normal as possible while the butterflies in her stomach raged on, "Everything alright?"

He sighed, "Yeah, you know just making sure the city's safe."

"In this 0° weather?  Where's your coat?"

"Aw, My Lady cares about me!"

She blushed, "Of course I do, you stupid cat! Now, what's the real reason you're out and about?"

He sighed, "You know me too well... I couldn't be home anymore.  It's too empty."

"Your father still hasn't come home from that business trip?"

"No," he said, "I'm used to him not being around, but it gets a little lonely during the holidays."

"I'm so sorry, Adrien."

"Why? It's not your fault."

She fiddled with the ends of her scarf,  "Well, I'd be happy to keep you company whenever you feel lonesome."

"Really? Whenever?" He smiled, "Even if I show up at 4 am?  I know how much you value your sleep."

"Whenever," she affirmed, "Though I don't know if 4am is the best idea for your safety. I can get a bit grumpy on no sleep."

He pulled her into a hug, "Thank you, Marinette."

"You're welcome," she whispered, returning the embrace.

She honestly didn't know if he would seriously take her up on the offer, but she did mean it.  Adrien was her friend no matter how confused she was about his dual identity, and she had no intention letting him spend the holidays alone.

She was still a little surprised when she heard a knock on the trapdoor to her balcony the very next day shortly after midnight. 

"Adrien?" She opened the door only half awake.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I should've told you I was coming.  Do I even have your phone number?"

"Don't worry about it.  I told you you're always welcome here," she smiled, "I'll give you my number later. Now, what's up?"

He mumbled something under his breath.

"What was that?"

"The mansion makes noises when it's empty.  I couldn't sleep..."

"The mansion makes noises..." she repeated, her tired brain taking a moment to process what he just said. "You came here...to sleep?"

"Yes?" He smiled shyly, "God, that sounds pretty stupid when you say out loud.  I'll just go."

"No!" She blushed not meaning to sound so desperate, "I mean, you can--uh--come in if you want."

"Thank you," he dropped down into the room and detransformed.

Plagg zipped right to marinette, "Cheese?"

"With Tikki's cookies."

"CHEESE!" He zoomed off.

Marinette turned to Adrien, "You can have the b--That's my face on your shirt…"  

He was wearing a white baseball shirt with red sleeves and a picture of Ladybug on the front paired with black-spotted flannel pants. Marinette didn’t know what to with this information.

"What?" He looked down and noticed his Ladybug themed pajamas and turned bright red, "Oh god."

Marinette laughed.

"Oh my god! I forgot I was wearing these… This is so embarrassing," he covered his face with his hands.

"No, no. It's cute," she said before quickly adding, "You're cute..."

Wait, did she actually say that out loud?

This made Adrien blush even harder than before.

"Plus, I think I finally have a reason to wear this," she pulled a Chat Noir onesie out of her bottom drawer.  "We can match."

"My Lady, did you make yourself a Chat Noir onesie?"

"Why, yes. Yes, I did."

Adrien smirked, "I knew you were secretly a fan."

"Shut up!" Marinette turned bright red.  Jeez, tonight's a blush-fest apparently, "I just saw tons of Ladybug merchandise and thought you deserved some too..." She trailed off, noticing Adrien was looking at her with such adoration that it made her heart race.  She tried to remind herself that this is her partner.  He shouldn't be able to affect her like this, but he's also her long-time crush.  This double identity thing is so confusing.  If course, it made perfect sense that Adrien is Chat Noir once she thought about it, but that didn't make it any easier to decipher her feelings for the boy.

"Well, I'm gonna go change," she broke the silence.

Adrien snapped out of his daze, "Yeah, okay. I'll…be here."

_Pull yourself together_ , Marinette, she thought as she splashed her face with cold water, _You're never gonna survive the night if you can't control your feelings._

"Well, how do I look?" She emerged from the bathroom to show off her creation.

"Why are there pictures of me in your trash can?"

She gasped, "What?"

"There's like a lot of pictures of me in the trash…"

The pictures.  The ones that used to be on her wall.  She took them down when she found out Adrien was Chat.  Her little crush on him felt so silly.  Turns out, she knew Adrien so well without even realizing it.  The pictures made it feel like nothing more than a celebrity crush, and that wasn't fair to Adrien. How can she get out of this without hurting his feelings or mentioning her huge crush on him?

"Oh, uh, I was getting rid of old fashion magazines I had."

He raised an eyebrow, "But only the pictures of me?"

"Why were you snooping through my trash anyway?"

"Plagg."

"Oh," she said, "Well, I was just getting rid of some clutter in my room."

He gave one of his famous Chat Noir smirks, "My Lady, you had pictures of me in your room?"

She covered her face with her hands, "Can we please stop talking about this? And I think you forget that I'm literally on your shirt right now."

He did forget, "Right, but I think you forget you said I looked cute in it."

"And I stand by it," she blurted out without thinking.

"Will, you two just shut up and make out already?" Plagg interrupted causing both heroes to get even more flustered.

"Plagg!" Tiki scolded, "Leave them alone."

"Humans waste so much time talking!"

"I know. Come on," Tikki dragged him back into the cabinet they had been.

Marinette cleared her throat, "Well, it's getting pretty late.  We should probably get to sleep.  You can have my bed.  I'll just sleep on the chaise."

"No, I couldn't--"

"Yes, you can. You're too tall to sleep comfortably in the chaise, so I'll just do it."

"But I wouldn't want you to get a bad night sleep because of me..."

"Oh, it'll be fine.  I can run on very little sleep."

"But I couldn't sleep well knowing that you're not sleeping well because of me."

They reached a stalemate. Both of them just stood there defeated.

"You know," Adrien's cheeks flushed, "you have a pretty big bed."

"I mean, I guess so…" she trailed off realizing what he meant, "Oh, you mean like share--?"

"Only if your comfortable with that! I wouldn't want to make you uncomfortable.  I know that sharing a bed has certain implications, but like its not like that! Not that I would be totally opposed to it being like that.  It's not like I've never thought about you like that--I mean, I would be comfortable sharing a bed just sleeping… But not too comfortable! Oh my god, what am I even saying?" He covered his face with his hands.  Plagg snickered from the cupboard.

"Um, yeah, we can do that," she said barely over a whisper, internally screaming over everything the boy just said.

"Well, okay," he smiled shyly.

_This boy is gonna be the death of me_ , She thought.

The two awkwardly shuffled towards the loft and positioned themselves as far away from each other as they could be on Marinette's double bed.

"Goodnight, Kitty."

"Goodnight, Princess."

It wasn't long before they both drifted off to sleep. 

* * *

 

"Marinette! Marinette! Wake up!" Tikki's frantic voice called out.

Marinette began coming to, feeling a weight on her stomach that she couldn't explain, "Tikki, what is it?"

"Your mom is calling you," She said, "Adrien needs to leave before she comes up here."

"Adrien?" That's when she realized it.  The weight on her stomach was Adrian's arm.  She and Adrien had moved to a spooning position in their sleep, "ADRIEN! YOU NEED TO GO!"

"Wha--?" Was all Adrien could get out before Marinette heard footsteps coming up her stairs and slammed her hand over his mouth.

"Just stay under the blanket and don't move," she warned.

"Marinette?" Sabine peeked her head in through the trap door.

Marinette climbed down from the loft, "Yes, mama."

"Make sure you get those deliveries done by the end of the day.  They're really starting to pile up," she said.

"I'm so sorry, Mama. I forgot.  They'll be done."

"Alright.  Sorry if I woke you." And with that she was gone.

Marinette breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh my god. That was close."

"I'm so sorry, Marinette!  I meant to leave early in the morning before anyone woke up, but I was just so comfortable-"

"Yeah, comfortable using Ladybug as a teddy bear," Plagg commented reminding both teenagers of the rather intimate position they woke up in.

The two heroes sprung apart from each other.

Adrien cleared his throat, "Well, thanks for the company."

"Like I said anytime," she gave an awkward salute.

"I guess I better be going…"

She nodded, "Right, have a safe trip home."

"Bye."

"Bye," they smiled sheepishly at each other.

"Alright, Adrien let's go," Plagg said.

"Right," Adrien said before transforming and leaving Marinette alone (with Tikki.)

"I didn't know kids saluted each other these days," Tikki said

Marinette's eyes widened, "Oh my god, did I salute?"


	2. One Step Closer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette's stressed and Adrien thinks maybe cuddles can help. Miraculous Fluff Month Day 10: Secret Sleepover

  
Marinette was in a crumby mood. In the weeks prior, their teachers had been piling on homework, and Chloe's harassment had doubled since she noticed how close Marinette and Adrien were becoming due to Chat Noir’s late night visits every few nights. On that particular day, Chloe was absolutely relentless after she heard that Marinette and Adrien went out to lunch without Nino and Alya. Marinette didn't think it was a date, but Chloe swore that it was and as punishment, "accidentally" ruined her favorite sketchbook. Marinette lost a ton of designs and was not looking forward to spending hours trying to re-write everything she could still salvage from the wreckage, which was what she was doing when Chat knocked on her trap door.

"Come in," she called, not wanting to stop her furious sketching to let him in.

He dropped down onto her bed, "Hi, Princess!"

"Hi," she muttered, not even looking up from her sketchbook.

"How are you today?" he asked, but no answer came, only the sound of her pencil gliding across the paper.

"My Lady?" he climbed down the loft.

No response.

“Princess?" he tried again, moving right behind her.

She didn't notice.

"Marinette," he put his hands on her shoulders.

She looked up at him, bleary-eyed and dazed, "Oh, hey, Kitty."

"Are you alright, My Lady?"

"Oh, yes, of course!" she said not at all convincingly, "I just have to finish transferring these sketches to a new book. I'm almost done." Adrien looked to see that she was barely halfway through.

"And how long have you been working?" he was honestly afraid to hear the answer.

She looked at the clock, "Oh! I didn't realize it was so late. I've been working since dinner." He noticed the empty plate beside her. As least she ate.

"Marinette, that's almost five hours without a break!"

"I know," he could feel her tense up, "It's just Chloe spilled black paint over my entire sketchbook and I had some really good ideas in here, so I wanted to make sure I remembered them all, and the only way to do that is to copy them all into a new sketchbook. But it's taking way longer than I thought. Oh God, I haven't even started the homework!" She scrambled to get to her school bag from across the room, but Adrien grabbed her before she could get to it.

He put a hand on each of her shoulders and turned her to face him, "Hey, it's okay. You can copy mine in the morning, and your sketchbook will still be here tomorrow. Now, you need to focus on sleeping."

"But--"

"Not buts," he said, "just put on your pajamas and I'll wait right here."

She looked as if she might protest, so he added a gentle, "Please," pushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear and effectively convincing her.

"Fine," she grumbled face aflame, "I don't know when you became the responsible one."

He laughed, "Just go."

She stuck her tongue out at him in spite, but ran to do it anyway.

He detransformed while he was waiting for her to come out of the bathroom. Plagg zoomed right to where Tikki sleeps to be with her, and he was left alone to stand in her room. He sometime was still amazed that he was in his Lady's room. They knew each other's identities, and she trusted him enough to welcome him into her home, into her bed. He couldn't believe that it was real, that Ladybug was sitting right behind him the whole time in the form of the sweetest, most amazing girl he's ever known. He didn't know how he got this lucky.

"There, are you happy?" she came out of the bathroom wearing a pink t-shirt and black pajama pants with green paw prints.

He smiled, "Yes, especially since you're wearing Chat Noir pants. He's a pretty great guy."

"Yeah, he is," she agreed, tapping his nose before climbing up to her bed, "He's a bit cheesy sometimes, though..."

He gasped dramatically, "I am not!"

"Oh, you know you are," she yawned, "So, are we going to bed?"

His heart skipped a beat. He doesn't think he'll ever get used to this, "Right! Yeah." He turned off the light, leaving only the moonlight as a guide to where the ladder was. He wished he was transformed so he could have his night vision, but he could make his way on his own. He crawled to the edge of the bed that he usually sleeps on and laid down, "Good night, Bugaboo."

"Night, Kitty." She still looked tense, staring up at the skylight. He had no doubt she would stay up all night worrying if he didn't do something.

"Princess, are you still stressing out?"

She scoffed, "No."

"Yes, you are."

"Fine, yes I am," she gave in "You know me way too well now..."

"Well, it's your fault. You know you're not supposed to feed strays if you don't want them to keep coming back."

"I guess it's a good thing I want you to keep coming back, then."

"Well, that's good, because you're stuck with me now."

"Good."

"Good," he hoped she was blushing as much a he was.

She rolled over to face him, “So, how do you suggest I get rid of this stress?”

He thought of the best way to say what he wanted to.  Whenever he was stressed or upset, he usually just wanted someone to hold him in their arms and tell him everything will be okay.  He hasn’t actually had someone to do that since his mother.  There were so many nights since her disappearance that he longed for touch. It’s not like his father would ever comfort him, and Nathalie only helped in her distant, professional way.  Though, he imagined that Marinette had no shortage of hugs and love.  She had her parents and Alya.  Maybe, she didn’t need him as much as he needed her, but he figured it didn’t hurt to try, "Well, did you know strays are also great for stress relief?"

She lifted her head slightly, raising her eyebrow in silent question.

He opened his arms, inviting her in, to make his intentions clearer.

“Oh,” her eyes widened. Was that a weird thing to suggest?  Was he mistaken that they were close enough to do something like that? Oh god, take it back. Take it back!

“Unless you don’t want to,” he blurted out,  “I mean we usually wake up like that anyway so I just thought–I don’t know. You can forget I said anything.”

“Adrien,” she said.

“I’m really really sorry if I made you uncomfortable,” he continued, “I don’t want–

“Adrien!” she said louder this time, “I think that, uh, cuddling would help.”

“Yeah?” Adrien said, relieved that he didn’t just ruin everything.

“Yeah,” then, she crawled towards him and slowly wrapped her arms around him, putting her head on his chest. He, in turn, wrapped his arms around her waist. He really hoped she couldn't hear his heart racing.

“You know, I feel better already,” she smiled.

“I’m glad I could help,” he said barely over a whisper, “Good night, Marinette.”

“Good night, Adrien,” she closed her eyes and hugged him tighter, “My kitty.”

_Her_ kitty _._

He really liked the sound of that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow my tumblr @plaggplz

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on tumblr @plaggplz


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